56 pages • 1 hour read
Tamsyn MuirGideon the Ninth
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: The Locked Tomb Series
The Locked Tomb is a four-book series that Muir compares to the original Star Wars trilogy in terms of its continuity (Dumpleton, Elise. “Q&A: Tamsyn Muir, Author of ‘Gideon the Ninth’.” The Nerd Daily, 4 Oct. 2019). Gideon the Ninth is followed by Harrow the Ninth, then Nona the Ninth, and finally Alecto the Ninth. Each book is both an entirely self-contained story and part of a greater arc. This allows Muir to explore vastly different aspects of her world and its thematic implications in each novel. There are questions in Gideon that Muir does not resolve, for instance, what happens to Gideon’s body after her death? This leaves Muir ample opportunity to weave the events of Gideon into other novels in the series.
Gideon the Ninth is the first novel and is told from the perspective of a character who has little idea of the world at large: Gideon has spent her whole life as an indentured servant of the Ninth House and only knows the sword and how to fight. Gideon’s limited perspective allows Muir to gesture at a larger world beyond Gideon’s perspective that can be explored later. Muir leaves large holes in our understanding of Gideon’s world because Gideon herself does not yet understand everything. This allows room for additional world-building so Muir can slowly reveal the Locked Tomb series universe in subsequent novels.
Authorial Context: Tamsyn Muir
Muir is a bestselling fantasy, sci-fi, and horror author from New Zealand whose work often deals with serious themes such as assault and abusive relationships. Muir proudly claims her roots as a writer of fanfiction before she started publishing fiction, which is uncommon for most contemporary authors. Her origins as a fanfiction author shape several aspects of Gideon the Ninth, for example, the enemies-to-lovers trope, which is a staple of fanfiction. This trope defines Gideon and Harrow’s relationship; it begins with fighting and ends with tenderness as the two become a single unit.
Muir is a lesbian who grew up in an extremely anti-LGBTQ+ environment. When Muir came out at school as a child, she was violently assaulted by a classmate, and nobody intervened (“Tamsyn Muir Interview: ‘There Is a Lot of Blood On My Dance Floor.” Three Crows Magazine, 22 Feb. 2020). Muir recalls hearing stories from her family about the tragedies of LGBTQ+ family members, such as the suicide of a cousin. The family members’ tragedies were presented to her as a necessary result of their LGBTQ+ identities. Muir did not openly publish literature about lesbian characters until 2015, when she was 30 years old.
Muir’s experience growing up as a lesbian under such conditions is reflected in Gideon the Ninth: There is no happy ending for Harrow and Gideon at a time when LGBTQ+ authors are often expected to give their LGBTQ+ characters happy endings. Neither are there clear signs of romantic feelings between Gideon and Harrow. Muir asserts that the murkiness is part of their fraught relationship and that the two at least have “homoerotic” feelings (Grady, Constance. “How Gideon the Ninth Author Tamsyn Muir Queers the Space Opera.” Vox, 5 Feb. 2021).
Genre Context: Space Opera and Grimdark
Gideon the Ninth blends together many genres, two of which are the space opera and grimdark fantasy. Space opera is a science fiction subgenre. The staples of space opera are gallant swashbuckling heroes, spaceships and space warfare, galactic empires, interpersonal drama (often romance), and highly advanced technology. The term is derived from “soap opera” because of its melodramatic elements. Two of the most popular space opera series are Star Trek and Star Wars. Gideon focuses on the genre’s swashbuckling heroes and interpersonal dramas, keeping the empires and spaceships in the background. The space opera’s tendency to focus on highly dramatic interpersonal relationships allows Muir to create scenes like the duel between Camilla and Dyas, where characterization is shown through the way characters fight: Dyas is tight and focused, a professional military trained duelist. Camilla needs the rules of the fight explained to her and hits like a “hurricane” (247).
Space opera deals in easily recognizable motifs that orient the reader in the galactic-scale setting, dramatic plot, and large cast of characters. One popular example is the “Imperial March,” a musical theme in the Star Wars film franchise that represents the Galactic Empire. Each of the Nine Houses in Gideon the Ninth can similarly be identified through repeated images or motifs that characterize the House’s culture and community. The members of the Eighth House are religious zealots, so they dress in all white and chainmail suits reminiscent of crusading knights. The Sixth are quiet scholars who wear plain gray outfits. The personalities of the houses align with what we would expect from their motifs, helping the reader acclimate quickly to a complex fictional universe.
Grimdark is a subgenre of speculative fiction, most often fantasy fiction, with apocalyptic themes. Grimdark tends to emphasize dystopian worlds with forever wars, desolate populations, and anti-heroes that are deeply flawed and/or traumatized. Grimdark worlds are hyper-violent, ultra-bloody, and lacking hope. Colonization and oppressive, massive empires feature prominently in the genre. The Ninth House’s crypt-like atmosphere, history of mass infanticide, and enslavement of Gideon are all grimdark elements. Gideon’s only escape from the planet is to join the Emperor’s military, the Cohort, and fight in a forever war against nameless enemies that has lasted 10,000 years. Muir employs grimdark to characterize the aesthetic background elements of the world that are not explicitly described in Gideon. Muir balances the monotonous suffering and pessimism of grimdark with frequent injections of humor, internet cultural references, and the heartfelt relationship between Gideon and Harrow.
